It's roughly 2100-2200 UTC at the moment, so 2200-2300 CET. (This is in Live; I know it's different in Legacy but not when)
Its timing is not guaranteed, but in general each tick is ~24 hours after the previous one. However, if for some reason a tick takes much longer to process than normal (relatively rare, but it does happen) the next one will not be shorter to make up for it, so the expected time will permanently change. It's been relatively stable at this sort of time for a while now, though that's no guarantee it won't change again.
It is incredibly rare for an entire day to go by with no tick. The most common reason this might happen is if the tick time was around 2300 (local), and then there was a delay and it slipped to 0100 (local) - in this case, it would be at 2300 on day 1, not at all on day 2, and 0100 on day 3 - though the time between ticks would still only be 26 hours, so in most timezones this would just be a late tick rather than a day without one. Actual
missed ticks are virtually unknown.
However: the time the tick happens at and the time the updated data has propagated across all the servers and become visible in game are two very different things. There are multiple ways the information is distributed - system maps, journal entries, squadron pages, local news reports, etc. - and these are all subject to distribution delays on the servers and caching in your game client so may for some time (potentially hours) after the tick show the data from the previous tick. Closing your game to desktop and restarting will clear your client caches, but won't help get fresh data if the delay is in server distribution.
The tick also occurs in two segments - commonly called the "State" and "Influence" ticks. In the "State" tick, which happens first, faction states are updated and any consequences of those states are applied (expansions, retreats, asset handover for conflicts, etc.) which can include influence changes caused by those states. In the "Influence" tick which follows that, the direct effects of player actions on faction influence are applied. It is possible as a result of the distribution delays that if you are playing at around the time of the tick, you will see the changes from the State results and then later see the changes from the Influence results. This is
not two ticks happening in the same day (which is incredibly rare) - it's just you seeing a result from half-way through the tick process.
I think its 6am Uk time every Thursday, which would be 7am CET this time of year?
That's the weekly server reset you're thinking of, rather than the daily Political update - it's the latter which is colloquially called "the tick".
